[AusNOG] IPv6: It's a business decision

[Kevin Karp]

Hello Ausnoggers

As the MD of a company that specialises in IPv6, I have been observing 
the various IPv6 discussions that have been raging on the list with much 
interest.

I have a slightly different perspective on some of the issues raised. 
I'll try to summarise them below:

IPv6 Training - Where is it?
May I suggest that people perform a search on the term "IPv6 Training 
Australia"(substitute country of choice).
Just this week one of our trainers (Hi Mike) is up in Hong Kong 
delivering an IPv6 train-the-trainer course.

Tunnels - are they evil?
Maybe they are, but to me they are simply a technical solution that 
satisfies a need, even if not perfectly, they do so adequately.

Tunnels - nobody uses them
What I can say about them is that everyday (yes, literally, every day) 
we receive new registrations for the free tunnel service that we have 
been providing for almost 5 years now.
I can also report that since the start of this year the level of 
interest in our commercial tunnel services has spiked up.
Just for the record, we have a tunnels user data base that contains 
close to 19,000 registrations. Those 19,000 users can access, and do 
access, IPv6 every day. They have done so for almost 5 years.

And I don't hear a word of complaint.

Does that mean that IPv6Now is dancing with the devil on the tunnels 
question?
Probably.
But hey if you really, and truly, are hating tunnels so much, there are 
plenty of native IPv6 transit providers out there. In my realm, I have 
Internode native IPv6 transit at home, Telstra native IPv6 transit at 
the office, NT&T native IPv6 transit at the DC, and Pipe IPv6 peering at 
the DC.
Quite simply, if you don't like tunnels then don't use them (that's the 
way of capitalism)... but don't try to use your dislike of tunnels as a 
reason to hold off on IPv6 implementation.

Tunnels - I can't find one in my locale
Well there is an excellent summary here: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IPv6_tunnel_brokers
Take your pick.

IPv6 and Business Strategy
This is the part of the discussion that dumbfounded me. In the list I 
saw young turks beating up on the old turks (like me) for not letting 
them into the technical solutions of the what? Of the PAST that's what.
Over 13 years ago I was part of a push to awaken the Australian retail 
sector to both the threat and the promise that the Internet represented 
to their industry. The likes of Gerry Harvey responded with statements 
along the lines that nobody would ever buy a TV set off the Internet. In 
the meantime, a young turk (Ruslan Kogan) came along and simply did it - 
making a fortune in the process.

My statement to this list, and to your corporate management, is simply 
and blatantly put:
If you want to be in business in the immediate future you must implement 
IPv6 Now!

Regards

Kevin

-- 
[e] kevin at ipv6now.com.au
[p] +61 2 9212 6044
[w] ipv6now.com.au